There went July, somewhere in a haze of work and study and Ian moving house/flat/abode.

Actually, since he has moved I have more or less moved over to his place, because he keeps the kitchen clean and we can walk into Greenwich. It is blessedly internet-free as all his neighbours have thoughtlessly locked their WiFi systems, so we have been playing lots of Carcassone and even doing food. I haven't got round to going swimming in the pool in the gym at his place yet, but I will sooner or later.

Back home, the carpets are nasty, the kitchen is disappearing fast under unwashed things, and the tomatoes are dying because my brother doesn't exactly do much. My absence seems to have galvanised him, however, as I had a text from him yesterday that read "I have just hoovered. I feel faint."

At the time, I was sitting on Clapham Common gorging on free Ben and Jerry's ice-cream and listening to fab bands such as Captain, so I didn't pay it much attention. There were a few crowds, and a chocolate fountain with Divine chocolate that one could stick ones tub of vanilla ice-cream, and then the chocolate went all ice-magicky, which is just about heaven. Saw lots of people. Ian met fellow celts and got to talk to them about aeroplanes incessantly and I did not have to listen (hurrah!) - although I now know lots of stuff about RVF movements and how to get helicopters from one end of London to the other, despite my attempts, really, not to know.

I have also been involved in minor DIY, ie holding things. Oh dear oh dear.

Bela and I have been off doing more walks, the latest one being scared by deer herds in Woburn Abbey, walking all round the outside fence of Woburn safari park (free exotic animals! Zebra and bears and gnu and giraffes and elephants and wallabies!), a walk that also involved random wandering through a wood, butterfly fixations and the first blackberries eaten off bushes of the season.

Somewhere over at uni, my supervisor has pulled the first draft of my dissertation to shreds, so I am looking forward to that one, and I am at work being bored by IT. In fact, I think I shall leave now, and take myself off to read about human capabilities somewhere that serves coffee, before going back to Ian's because it's closer than going home.

It's a bit grey now, so I hope it rains, the tomatoes might survive then.

* posted by nat 2:27 PM

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

I just want to say that having the air-con on in the office so I have to freeze is bad enough, but for two hours this morning there has not only been air-con, but a fan turned on full-blast right behind my back.

Why?!

* posted by nat 10:08 AM

Monday, July 17, 2006

It's the little things: the computer automatically flags up articles with key companies in, one of which is Hewlett-Packard. So I have just had great fun reading a few articles on Lovecraft! Uteerly irrelevant, but it brightens my day.

I'm just back from a quick under-factor-50-sunning frappuccino-slurping session on the South Bank, in perfect temperatures of just over 30C that make me feel very energetic. I hate air-conditioned offices, as now I am back here my fingers are going blue - not good!

* posted by nat 12:46 PM

Monday, July 10, 2006

Alan, one of the people on my course, was the kind of man who always smiled and made you feel better, even if he didn't know you were feeling down. There was just always something cheerful about him. Which, somehow, makes this even worse.

I found out about his death in work today, but the worst thing was getting to the station and seeing it on the front pages of the Standard, and then being on the train, with everyone reading the paper, and no getting away from it.

So senseless.

* posted by nat 9:16 PM

Thursday, July 06, 2006

I got ID'd in the Coop today trying to buy four bottles of Belgian beer.

Of course I don't have any ID that actually shows my age, I am way beyond that, so I tried waving my postgrad card under the girl's nose and explaining that generally, it was a bit difficult to be a postgrad *and* be under 18. Not to mention under-18s don't generally buy Leffe. However I don't think the checkout girl knew what a postgrad was, so it was a bit wasted on her. Luckily I was with Ian, who had ID and they accepted that.

This is what comes of living in a chav-filled area and not wearing make-up.

* posted by nat 11:15 PM

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

A cheque came in the post. This work thing does have its benefits!

Another busy weekend over - Friday involved Ian coming back from Germany at 4am, then him getting up at 7am to go and look at houses, then me going to work in the afternoon and collapsing in the evening. On Saturday we went to Kew Gardens, because it was free, and there was a music festival, and we had a picnic and lay on the grass and I wore a sundress and life was good.

Then on Sunday Bela and I went off walking, beachcombing from Southbourne to Bosham and thence through the fields towards Chichester cathedral, which we came to after about seven hours of wandering, hot and sticky and feeling like a mini-pilgrim. The butterflies were out in abundance and my blisters survived the experience.

I came home on Monday night to find a frog sitting on my front doorstep, apparently wanting to come in - perhaps she wanted a shower? I refused and she hopped off in a sulk. Then I went in and somehow downloaded Frogger, and have done nothing useful since except much swapping between all the tennis on BBC interactive, and occassionally going out and sitting in the sun, apart from the moment when there was a little bit of rain and a lot of spectacular lightning.

And mint Magnums? Are delicious!

* posted by nat 9:05 AM